Xbox’s Spencer: I like the Xbox One’s hardware but install times are too slow

In a recently stint with IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, Xbox head Phil Spencer engaged in some frank discussion regarding the Xbox One.

First, he’s happy with the Xbox One’s hardware, which is less powerful than Sony’s PS4.

“From a reliability standpoint, I mean I lived through red rings on 360 and other things, has been significantly better than we were at the launch of 360 which has been great. I’m not ashamed of the hardware that we have anyway, and if somebody asks me, ‘should I go buy an Xbox One’, I can definitely tell them from the content that we have and the platform that we have, and the services that we have, and for the hardware that we have, ‘yes.’

“I can make a commitment to them that they’re buying into a platform that I’m committed to, across all facets of that platform, and that we’re gonna make this platform as great as we can for them.”

That said, Spencer isn’t crazy about install times on the console.

“The change to having to deal with an offline-only state meant that all the install code-flows weren’t as perfect as they could be,” Spencer began, conceding that PS4 install times were on average faster.

“Are there systemtic reasons for that? Our drive’s obviously the same speed, moving stuff into memory takes the same amount of time; hard drive speed’s basically the same, so what’s going on?” he said. “I’m capturing the data. I want to be state-of-the-art in install times so people can start playing games as soon as possible. It’s high on my priority list.”